


Wishes Come True

by the_og_straya



Category: Marvel
Genre: Bucky is a genie, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I was inspired I guess?, If leveragehunters ever sees this I’ll probably scream, Korean food from Korea, M/M, Magic, Oblivious Steve Rogers, i literally have no tags for this, someone help me tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:48:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27509353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_og_straya/pseuds/the_og_straya
Summary: A mild AU of an AU where Bucky frees himself, stays with Steve, but... they don’t say I love you. Bucky’s mildly put off until he realizes that maybe it doesn’t quite matter anymore.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	Wishes Come True

**Author's Note:**

  * For [leveragehunters (Monkeygreen)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Monkeygreen/gifts).
  * Inspired by [If Wishing Made It So](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6652381) by [leveragehunters (Monkeygreen)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Monkeygreen/pseuds/leveragehunters). 



> Ok so yes this is for leveragehunters because they are an AMAZING author and I read like. Everything of theirs? In like a week. Is that mildly stalkerish? Maybe. Do I care? No.
> 
> Anyways. It does make more sense if you read their series first, but all you need to know is it’s a Stucky AU where Bucky is a genie that was captured by Hydra, they lose him, Steve finds him, and then through Steve, Bucky finds himself. A whole lot more happens but sue me, I’m a romantic. If you get the chance to read the series though, I highly encourage you to do so!

“Why?” Steve asked immediately, as soon as Bucky came in, and he frowned.

“Why what?”

“Why come back?” He stood strong, arms crossed, immovable. No cracks in the facade.

But Bucky knew that’s all it was: a facade.

“You can go anywhere,” Steve said. “Do anything. Be anything. Why stay? Why be...” he waved his hand in a complicated pattern, enveloping Bucky. “This?”

Bucky looked down at himself with a slight frown. “Do you... not like this?”

“What? No! That’s not-” he stopped suddenly, pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose, eyes closed. He took a deep breath before continuing, less ice in his voice. “That’s not what I meant. I don’t...” he swallowed. “I don’t care. That’s not the point.”

“You want to know why I stay,” Bucky reiterated. “Or why I stay... like this.”

Steve shrugged, taking another breath before finally looking away, forcefully removing the tension from his shoulders. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

“Steve?”

“Hm?”

“You know how I can tell you when you’re being an idiot?”

Steve cracked a half-smile. “I’m being an idiot?”

Bucky stepped closer. “It’s important to you. I want to tell you, but I don’t know what you’re asking.”

Steve sighed again and moved over to the couch, flopping down. He took another deep breath, and Bucky could see him considering his words. “You’re free. You’re no longer bound to me, or whatever it is. You can go anywhere you want, multiple anywheres in fact, and you can be whatever you want. So why stay in this plane of existence? Why stay with me? And why stay Bucky?”

Bucky blinked. “You know me.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“No, I mean-” for the first time in possibly ever, he found himself doing an extremely human thing: considering his words.

Though, he thought, he’d seen lots of humans. Not one of them, besides Steve, had taken the time to think about the impact of their words. So maybe it wasn’t a human thing; maybe it was a Steve thing.

“I’ve been around for millennia. I’ll be around for millennia more. And in all that time, in all those planes, you were the only one to insist I not call you Master. You were the only one to treat me with kindness. You were the only one to see me as a whole being with thoughts and desires. You were the only one,” he said, low, controlled, serious. “To see me.” He shrugged. “You know me. You know there are few things I hate more than the bus. You know I don’t like crowds.”

“You don’t like more than three people, you mean,” Steve interrupted.

Bucky flicked his arm. “Hush. You know I’ll never say no to chocolate and will, in fact, eat an entire chocolate pie by myself.”

“Quite the impressive feat.”

This time Bucky laughed. “That’s why I stay,” he finished. “Because you know me. There’s not another creature that knows me like you do.”

Steve quirked his eyebrows, an almost sad expression making its way onto his face. “Parents? Siblings? Relatives in general?”

Bucky laughed softly. “Genies don’t _have_ family. We just exist. We are... courteous, to one another, if we happen to meet. But for the most part we keep to ourselves.”

Steve frowned. “Sounds lonely.”

Bucky laughed again. “Maybe. But it’s the way we are.”

Steve looked down. “So why stay? If it’s the way you are, why stay?”

“Well, I never said I was like the rest of them. I happen to think being lonely gets really boring.” He grinned at Steve. “You might be an idiot, but at least you’re an entertaining idiot.”

Steve snorted, kicking his foot out to nudge Bucky’s leg. “Could say the same about you.”

“Except I’m not an idiot.”

“And who’s saying that exactly?” Steve smirked at him. “Mostly just meant you’re entertaining, in any case.” He sighed, stretched out on the couch, calf a solid line against Bucky’s ankle.

Bucky swallowed. He was almost older than space and time itself, had seen countless beginnings and endings, had seen supernovas and the inside of black holes. And this is what scared him. “I guess, mostly, I stay because the world’s divided. Or maybe I've divided it, I don’t know.” He gave a slight shrug. “You’re kinda a grey area, when it comes to this type of thing. But there’s two sides to the world: you, and everything that isn’t you.”

Steve considered it. “Are Sam and Nat a part of the me-side?”

Bucky thought for half a second. “Yes.” Easy and truthful, because he knew that would appease Steve. More than that, it would make Steve happy.

Steve nodded like it was settled: he’d agreed, so now it was. Bucky had to smile at how wrong he wasn’t. “Okay. Thank you for telling me. Wanna magic us up some dinner from that one Korean place?” Bucky raised a brow. “And then maybe magic some of my money into their cash register?” There it was. He chuckled at the familiarity of it.

“I don’t know that they’ll take dollars instead of the won.”

Steve snorted. “That’s a new one.” He shut his eyes and waved a hand around. “I want food. Bulgogi. And kimchi.” He cracked his eyes open at Bucky. “Please.”

Bucky sighed, more because it’s what he’s expected to do than what he felt, and inclined his head toward the dining room table, where the food was waiting for them.

Steve gave him a dark look, and he chuckled before moving the food over onto the coffee table. “You know I just like getting a rise out of you.”

“I _know_ ,” Steve groused, not nearly as upset as he was pretending to be. For all his acting, Bucky knew Steve liked seeing him happy. “Pain in my ass,” he muttered to himself as he sat up to get his food.

The _please, you love me_ died in Bucky’s throat. They hadn’t... not that it wasn’t true on any account, but they hadn’t said it yet.

Instead, he sighed and touched the back of Steve’s head, taking away the headache, and Steve blinked. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Bucky murmured, with his own private smile. They hadn’t said it yet; but maybe they didn’t have to say it. Maybe showing it was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope y’all liked it! Feel free to yell with me about our boys in the comments. And I’m always up to suggestions! Shoot me a prompt and a pairing and I’ll see what I can do!


End file.
